295 W22 Kim

ENGL 295, Section 001 Social Media Winter 2022

Mondays 10:00-11:20 am (Teams/HH 138) Wednesdays asynchronous on LEARN

Instructor Information

Instructor: Jin Sol Kim (pronouns: she/her) Office: N/A

Virtual Office Hours: M/W 1:00-2:00 EDT on MS Teams Email: js2kim@uwaterloo.ca

Territorial Acknowledgement

I acknowledge that I am living, learning, and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.

Course Description

This course attends to the popular social media landscape and surveys the theoretical and methodological approaches towards the analysis and understanding of social media as a palpable phenomenon in contemporary digital culture. Throughout the course, you will learn about such topics as social networks, digital identity, memes, labour, the transformation of social relationships, data politics, privacy, and regulation. Your participation in this course will enable you to critically analyze social media content and platforms; evaluate the content, audience, politics, and effects of social media; identify and assess organizational and regulatory constraints in the social media systems; examine the key issues in social media such as regulation, labour and privacy; as well as understand and reproduce the semantic and symbolic significance of media codes such as memes and celebrity selfies.

Course Goals and Learning Objectives

Knowledge — by the end of the course you should be able to:

Analyze social media content and platforms

Evaluate the audience, politics, and effects of social media

Identify and assess the organizational and regulatory constraints in social media systems Examine the key issues in social media such as regulation, labour, and privacy Understand the semantic and symbolic significance of media codes such as memes and celebrity selfies

Application—over the course of the term you will:

Take notes from various media and lectures to understand, remember, and apply new ideas

Interpret texts using scholarly methods of analysis

Frame persuasive arguments in writing

Integration—this course encourages you to:

Develop a clear and concise scholarly voice

Write more professionally: conceive, research, draft, edit and proofread your work

Connect your reading and writing strategies to the larger project of your degree

This course is reading intensive, writing intensive, and participation intensive: I expect you to do the readings, take careful notes, and take part.

Pandemic Objectives

1. To be patient and kind with ourselves and with each other.
2. To embrace the opportunity to learn in new ways and grow as students and citizens.
3. To do our best, knowing that this will probably look different than other terms.
4. To communicate openly and clearly about our expectations, concerns, and goals. Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you how I can help.
5. To be flexible. This is a strange time. We’re all a bit anxious. Circumstances will likely change over the course of the term. Let’s work together to make this the best class possible, knowing that this may be a moving target.

Required Text/Materials

All readings and resources will be made available on LEARN.

Course Assessment

Activity	Weight	Due Date
Participation	20%	Weekly
Platform Analysis	25%	February 9
Celebrity Selfie Analysis	25%	March 2
Final Project Proposal	5%	March 9
Final Project	25%	April 4

* Note: The full information for the course assignments stated above are available as separate PDF documents located within the “Course Syllabus” module on the LEARN course site.

Course Schedule

 

Week 1: Logging on

January 5: Introduction and Syllabus Review

Week 2: The Overall Field of Social Media January 10: Read: boyd, “Social Media”

January 12: Reading Response: Roose, “Can Social Media Be Saved?”

Week 3: Platformization of the Web

January 17: Read: Helmond, “The Platformization of the Web” January 19: Reading Response: TBD

Week 4: The Politics of Platforms January 24: Read: Gillespie, “The Politics of ‘Platforms’”

January 26: Reading Response: Gillespie, “How platforms reduce the visibility of some content” on YouTube

Week 5: Comparative Uses of Four Social Media Platforms January 31: Read: Alhabash and Ma, “A Tale of Four Platforms”

February 2: Reading Response: McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message”

Week 6: Selfies

February 7: Read: Senft and Baym, “What does the Selfie Say?” February 9: Reading Response: van Dijck, “Digital Photography”

Due: Platform Analysis (PA) on LEARN at 11:59PM

Week 7: Social Identity in Starter Pack Memes

February 14: Read: Eschler and Menking, “‘No Prejudice Here’: Examining Social Identity Work in Starter Pack Memes”; Guest lecture: Shannon Loeden

February 16: Reading Response: TBD 

Week 8: READING WEEK

February 21: No class

February 23: No class

Week 9: Digital Doppelgangers, Databases, and Power

February 28: Robinson, “Databases and Doppelgangers” March 2: Reading Response: TBD

Due: Celebrity Selfie Analysis on LEARN at 11:59PM

Week 10: Gender, Race, and Privacy in Facebook

March 7: Read: Cirucci, “Normative Interfaces: Affordances, Gender, and Race in Facebook”;

Guest lecture: Alexi Orchard

March 9: Reading Response: Vaidhyanathan, “Facebook’s New Move Isn’t About Privacy: It’s About Domination”

Due: Final Project Proposal on LEARN at 11:59PM

Week 11: Ideological Communities on YouTube

March 14: Read: Maddox, “Interrogating LeftTube: ContraPoints and the Possibilities of Critical Media Praxis on YouTube”; Guest lecture: Chris Martin

March 16: Reading Response: Contrapoints, “Pronouns” on YouTube

Week 12: Labour and the Platform Economy

March 21: Read: Caplan and Gillespie, “Tiered Governance and Demonetization: The Shifting Terms of Labor and Compensation in the Platform Economy”

March 23: Reading Response: Interview with Sarah T. Roberts, “How Facebook Moderates Content” on YouTube

Week 13: The Uniqueness of Tik Tok and the Transformation of Power Relationships

March 28: Read: Zhang, “Infrastructuralization of Tik Tok: Transformation, Power Relationships, and Platformization of Video Entertainment in China”

March 30: Reading Response: Munger, “TikTok is a Unique Blend of Social Media Platforms”

Week 14: Logging Off April 4: Due: Final Project on LEARN at 11:59pm EST

Accommodations/ Accessibility

In our class environment, we will be mindful of the reality that everyone learns differently. If you have any concerns about accessing course content or accommodating your learning style, please let me know. You can also arrange for formal accommodations with AccessAbility Services by registering at the beginning of each academic term. AccessAbility services is currently operating online. Please call: 519-888-4567 ext. 35082 or email: access@uwaterloo.ca. Further information may be found on the following website: https://uwaterloo.ca/accessability-services/.

Late Work

All assignments are to be submitted in electronic copy via the various Dropboxes or discussion forums on LEARN on the due date noted on the class schedule and syllabus. Late assignments will receive a 2% deduction from the assignment grade per business day. To avoid the deduction of late marks, prepare your work in advance (i.e. if you have any questions or concerns, I expect to hear from you well before the assignment is due).

Late marks will not apply for the two following reasons:

1. If you have notified me in advance about a concern or conflict, and we have come to an agreement on an alternate deadline.
2. If you invoke the COVID clause (valid one time only, see below)

COVID Clause

Before I am your instructor and you are my students, we are first and foremost fellow humans, and I understand that sometimes we can’t prepare for the shit that happens in our lives (like COVID-19). If something comes up that you didn’t anticipate and that you don’t have documentation for, you may invoke this clause as a “get out of late marks free” pass. You may use it on one assignment throughout the term and receive a three (3) day extension, no questions asked, though I do request that you contact me as soon as you think you might need it. This clause is my gift to you. Please use it wisely.

Communication Policy

Though we do live digital lives, I do not live 24/7 on my email. Do not expect me to respond to your email instantaneously; allow for 24 hours on weekdays and 48 hours on weekends for me to get back to you. If you feel the need to chat via phone or video call, please email me to arrange a Teams meeting.

Academic Integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for their actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.